Serena is a Leeds software star with help from academy

Digital City spoke to Serena Wadsworth, who has just graduated through Sky Betting & Gaming’s inaugural 14-week Software Academy Bootcamp.

“I joined Sky Betting & Gaming following a Masters in War Studies that had a cyber-security element.

“This fuelled an interest in tech. I saw an ad on YouTube and wanted to take a role somewhere with a better lifestyle than London can presently offer, so here in Leeds I rent my own property, I can save and travel.

“So far I’ve taken a weekend in Paris, a week in Vienna, and I’m planning on skiing in Andorra in the New Year.

“The course has been an amazing start, meeting 27 like-minded early-career colleagues, working in a supportive, collegiate environment and being offered some fantastic live challenges.

“We started out on general business skills such as how to operate within a business that’s very agile.

“The way in which we work together is very vocal and active, each morning for example we have a stand up and all talk about our plans for the day, what we’ve done and any constraints we may face.

“I’m now a Test Engineer in the Data Tribe which is a great fit for me because I thrive when solving puzzles and figuring things out.

“The Data Tribe is a prominent area of the business and my highlight to date was solving a live issue.

“I’d spotted an issue in SQL where a minute section of code was the wrong way round.

“I’m hoping to go on to complete a scrum master’s course here and I’m getting more into PEN testing.

“There are lots of opportunities here and anything is open to me at the moment. It’s incredibly exciting.”